The experimental quintet released its second album, Six Demon Bag, on Ace Fu this February. Like the group’s live shows, the disc is a maelstrom of horns, piano and hollered vocals, held together by a menagerie of percussion instruments ranging from marimbas to tin cans.

In the last year and a half, the band has toured with Arcade Fire, The Fiery Furnaces, and Okkervil River, in addition to numerous treks on its own. The group is looking to step up the pace this summer with two dozen dates in June and more planned for July.

Man Man will headline most shows, save for two brief runs with The Fiery Furnaces. A longer national tour is in the works for September and October as well.

After some significant lineup shuffles, the band now comprises Honus Honus, Chang Wang, Pow Pow, Sergei Sogay and Alejandro “Cougar” Bjorg. With the exception of Honus, who focuses on keyboards and vocals, all members play a variety of instruments, often switching mid-song during the band’s frenetic set.

“I think the live show is stronger than ever,” Honus (aka Ryan Kattner) told Pollstar. “It’s pretty fiery and energetic, and none of that’s changed. I feel like personal communication between band members is a lot more intense now.”

Kattner shrugged off the lineup shuffles as part of the band’s evolution.

“It’s just the way things happen, I suppose. You know what it’s like to play in a band that sleeps on floors. Some brothers just can’t do that.

“It’s not a character judgment, it’s just a quality of life issue. By the time we were touring, like, two years ago, we didn’t anticipate that it would become a pseudo-career.

“The lineup that we have now is constructed with the long term planned. When I had to find people that could keep this project going with the same vision – you know, but with their own unique twist on it – I knew that I wanted to pick people that knew what they were in store for. I really lucked out getting the guys that I did.

“The score was getting Cougar and Sergei and Pow Pow on board. Just ’cause when you lose someone who plays marimba, horns, percussion and guitar, you can’t really just go up in your local co-op or coffee shop and put up a flyer that’s requiring one person to do all that stuff.”

Although the group’s stock is on the rise, the band members haven’t yet been able to quit their day jobs – a fact Kattner chalks up to the costs of having to rent a van for each tour.

“Not owning a van has made things very difficult,” he said. “But we’ve put out a couple records now and we’re touring and we’re getting better shows so, you know. We’re not in this for the money.”

The band has been writing new material in between tours and is looking forward to recording its next album in the coming months.

“As of now, we don’t have a label for it,” Kattner said. “We put out those two records with our previous label, and the meter’s run out. So now we’re just going to tour and record our next record and hopefully we’ll be on to greener pastures.

“We’re really excited to get in the studio though. We’re starting to play more new stuff out live. Even though it seems like whenever we go out on tour, it doesn’t matter because they’re all new tunes to people and it’s great.

“There’s nothing really worse than when I go see a band and they have to introduce every single song, or be like, ‘Oh, you know, we’re Johnny Bottlethroat and we’re from Detroit and this song is called “Gingerbread Girl.”‘ It’s the new one!’

“Yeah, they’re all new, dude. We don’t care where the f*ck you’re from. Just play your set.”